What is a genome? A genome contains all of the information that a cell needs to develop, function, and reproduce itself, and all the information needed for those cells to come together to form a person, plant, or animal. Genomes contain an organism’s complete set of genes, and also the even tinier genetic structures that help regulate when and how those genes are used.
The ability to regrow a torn ligament, the clues that might predict the onset of mental illness, the nutritional potential of crops, and even the history of life itself, are all encoded in genomes. By taking this course, you will discover how scientists are deciphering the language of genomes to learn how to develop sustainable food and fuel supplies, improve disease treatment and prevention, and protect our environment.
Professor Robinson is the main instructor for this course. In addition, each module features several guest instructors. These guest instructors come from diverse fields of study—biology, physics, computer science, and many others—and pursue diverse research goals, yet they share a common interest in genomic approaches and technologies. The guest instructors include:
- Elizabeth (Lisa) Ainsworth, Associate Professor of Plant Biology
- Mark Band, Director of the Functional Genomics Facility
- Alison Bell, Associate Professor of Animal Biology
- Jenny Drnevich, Functional Genomics Bioinformatics Specialist with High-Performance Biological Computing
- Christopher Fields, Associate Director of High-Performance Biological Computing
- Bruce Fouke, Director of the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center
- Glenn Fried, Director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology Core Facilities
- Nigel Goldenfeld, Professor of Physics
- Brendan Harley, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Alvaro Hernandez, Director of the High-Throughput Sequencing and Genotyping Facility
- Victor Jongeneel, former NCSA Director of Bioinformatics and former Director of High-Performance Biological Computing
- Kingsley Boateng, Senior Research Specialist with the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology Core Facilities
- Stephen Long, Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences
- Ruby Mendenhall, Associate Professor of African American Studies
- William Metcalf, Professor of Microbiology
- Karen Sears, Assistant Professor of Animal Biology
- Saurabh Sinha, Associate Professor of Computer Science
- Lisa Stubbs, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
- Rachel Whitaker, Associate Professor of Microbiology
- Derek Wildman, Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology
- Peter Yau, Director of the Protein Sciences Facility

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May 08, 2019

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So far l just love the course and the instructors...

À partir de la leçon

What Were the First Genomes Like and How Do They Work Now?

You may have seen DNA visually represented in different ways: a twisted ladder, a tangle of string, an array of sloppy X shapes, a row of letters. But what is DNA actually doing, and how does it relate to genes and the genome? How are scientists able to move from studying the physical structure of the genome to understanding its functionality? This module will help you become more comfortable with these ideas.

Enseigné par

Dr. Gene E. Robinson

Transcription

[MUSIC] Genomics is the study of the structure and function of an organism's complete set of genetic material and how it defines life. DNA is a specialized complex molecule that makes up the genome. Currently, there's a great deal of interest in sequencing the genomes of more and more species. You might ask, why do we do that? We have a few genome sequence, some microbes, some plants, a few animals, a few human genomes. Why do we need to do more? It's a very simple answer for that, and that is the more genomes that we sequence, the more we can compare them and learn more information from them. It's possible by comparing genomes to find those parts of the genome that are very, very important for particular biological functions. The more conserved they are, that is the more similar they are across diverse species, that's a sign that that similarity needs to be there for a purpose. It needs to be there to allow for a particular biological process to occur. So, this is an extremely important insight that we can gain by comparing genomes. Another way to get information is by finding particular genes that are unique in species. These may have very unique functions that are important for the uniqueness of that species. I predict within two to three decades, we will sequence all of life on this planet. All the microbes, all species of plants, all species of animals. This will be an amazing accomplishment, will gives us an entirely new library, the library of the future will be the repository of all information, from all of life on the planet, derived by sequencing the genomes. So where did genomics come from? Genomics, of course, is derived from the science of molecular biology, a spectacularly successful form of science. Genomics is sort of like a baby of molecular biology. But like many babies, it doesn't resemble the parents. It's very, very different in its orientation. Molecular biology is reductionistic. It seeks to understand each component in exquisite detail. That's very, very important and has contributed to the spectacular success of biology. However, we learned that it's not enough. Complex systems, whether they are a brain, or an ecosystem, require a holistic approach to complement the reductionistic approach of one molecule or one gene at a time. And that's what genomics is. If molecular biology is retail, genomics is wholesale. It seeks to understand whole systems. Developing technology to study, not just one gene at a time, but all the genes at a time. It seeks to have the capacity to sequence hundreds, thousands, millions of genomes, not even just one genome. So, it's a grand science that understands that we have grand challenges that these fundamental issues in biology are of great complexity and require a really skillful blend of reductionistic science and holistic genomic science. [MUSIC]